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Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) greets Prosecutor General Yury Chaika as he enters a hall to attend a meeting with regional officials in the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 31, 2013. (Associated Press) **FILE** more >

Russia’s top prosecutor has urged U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch a criminal case against the British-American anti-corruption crusader behind the Magnitsky Act sanctions that punish Russians for human rights abuses.

In a statement broadcast Tuesday by the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika said he had sent a letter to Mr. Sessions requesting the U.S. launch an investigation into Bill Browder and his associates — in addition to reconsidering the Magnitsky Act.

“We have put it straight that, from our standpoint, the [Magnitsky] act was adopted for no actual reason, while it was lobbied by people who had committed crimes in Russia,” Mr. Chaika said.

Mr. Browder, an American-born British citizen, complained Monday that he’d tried last week to book a flight from the United Kingdom to the U.S. but had been blocked because his travel permit had been suspended after Russia did an end run around usual Interpol rules and got him blacklisted.

Mr. Browder said the blacklisting was in retaliation for his exposing Moscow’s dirty secrets.

Later Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Mr. Browder — who was convicted in absentia in 2013 of tax evasion by a Moscow court and sentenced to nine years in prison — had the right to enter the United States at any time.

The situation had sparked intense interest on Capitol Hill, where both Democrats and Republicans had urged the administration to clear up the matter, saying the U.S. shouldn’t allow Russia to wield a veto over American admissions policy.

Mr. Browder has been vocal in criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he used to employ Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in a Russian jail after exposing massive fraud in the Moscow regime.